Smoke, Amber, And A Room That Paid Attention

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There is a small distillery at the southern tip of the Isle of Arran, a Scottish island most people couldn’t place on a map, that has been quietly making one of the more interesting arguments in whisky right now.

The argument goes something like this: peat — that ancient, compressed vegetation that gives Scotch its famous smoky character — deserves its own dedicated home.

Not a side project, not a limited run, but a whole distillery, built for nothing else.

That distillery is Lagg.

It opened in 2019.

It is, by Scotch whisky standards, practically a newborn.

The Lagg range, lined up at Director’s Cut. Four expressions, one island, one unwavering commitment to peat — each bottle a different answer to the same question: how far can you push smoke before it becomes something else entirely. The wooden stoppers and spare label design are consistent across the range; what changes is what’s inside, and how the cask has chosen to respond. (Pix: Fernando Fong)

Tables set and glasses ready at Director’s Cut — each place marked with a tasting guide, each glass waiting to be filled. The tall water carafe in the centre is the unsung hero of any serious whisky evening: peat this heavy demands a clean palate between drams, and water, it turns out, is the most honest companion smoke has ever had. (Pix: Fernando Fong)

Built for Smoke: Why Lagg Exists

What Lagg makes is peated single malt.

Peat is essentially ancient decomposed vegetation — moss, roots, compressed organic matter — that, when burned, produces a thick, aromatic smoke.

Distillers use that smoke to dry malted barley, and the smoke gets into the grain, and the grain gets into the spirit.

The result is a whisky that carries something of the land it came from: earthy, maritime, occasionally medicinal, always memorable.

Arran’s older distillery, at Lochranza on the island’s north, has always been known for its unpeated style — clean, fruity, approachable.

Lagg was built specifically so the peated character could have a place of its own, without compromise.

The copper pot stills — built by Forsyths, the legendary Scottish still-maker — sit against a backdrop of coastal landscape that makes you briefly consider relocating to a windswept island.

The Corriecravie Edition, 55% ABV — finished in Oloroso sherry hogsheads and bottled at cask strength. The stark black-and-white label is no accident: according to Gray, it was designed to reflect the duality of peat itself — the dark, compressed earth and the pale ash it leaves behind. A bottle that tells you exactly what’s inside before you’ve even pulled the cork. (Pix: Fernando Fong)

To a Western palate, Corriecravie tastes of Christmas cake and old leather. To someone who grew up near a Chinese medicine hall, those same notes arrive differently — dried dates, woody bark, the faint ghost of a herbal broth their grandmother once made. Neither reading is wrong. That’s the thing about peat and sherry: they carry memory. (Pix: Fernando Fong)

Kilmory and Corriecravie: A Tale of Two Casks

On the evening of 13 May, Rob Gray — the Head of Global Sales for Isle of Arran Distillers — stood at the front of Director’s Cut, a whisky bar tucked inside Menara Ken TTDI in Kuala Lumpur, and walked a room full of guests through four glasses of the stuff.

The bar’s low lighting caught the amber in the glasses. Someone’s skewered meat arrived.

It was the kind of evening that reminded you why in-person tastings still matter — four pours, one island, and a very clear point of view.

The two expressions poured that evening tell the story neatly.

The Kilmory Edition — named after a village on Arran’s west coast — is matured entirely in first-fill bourbon barrels, bottled at 46% without chill filtration or added colour. It is the lighter of the two: vanilla and cream underneath, smoke on top, the kind of whisky that surprises people who think peated means aggressive.

The Corriecravie Edition goes further. Finished in Sherry casks, it arrives darker, richer, more layered — sweet spiced berries and dark chocolate doing a slow negotiation with the peat. It is Lagg’s second core release and a meaningful step up in complexity.

Both are bottled without chill filtration or added colour at 46% — what you’re getting is the real thing, unfiltered and unaltered.

Gray actively promotes Lagg’s offerings, highlighting the brand’s unique qualities and engaging with whisky enthusiasts internationally. (Pix: Fernando Fong)

Inside Director’s Cut at Menara KEN TTDI — one of the Werner Group’s newer addresses, from the team behind El Cerdo and The Whisky Bar. Guests settled into the bar’s deep green armchairs as Gray walked the room through the story of Lagg. The space carries the same unhurried confidence as its siblings — the kind of room Andreas, the group’s familiar “Orang Jerman,” tends to build. (Pix: Fernando Fong)

A layered chocolate-and-cream-cheese brownie, finished with candied nuts. The pairing is shrewder than it looks: the richness of the chocolate and cream cheese takes the edge off the smoke, letting the whisky’s sweeter side come forward. The dark chocolate finds common ground with the Corriecravie’s sherry depth, while the cream cheese keeps the Kilmory’s lighter peat from feeling sharp. And the nuts on top add just enough crunch and sweetness to round the whole thing out — the kind of ending a good dram deserves. (Pix: Fernando Fong)

The Man Sent to Tell the Story

None of this is accidental.

A distillery this young — its first single malt only released in 2022 — sending its global sales head to Southeast Asia signals a deliberate bet on this part of the world.

The whisky market in Malaysia, Singapore, and the wider region has been growing steadily, and the premium end of that market has developed a particular appetite for provenance: where a whisky comes from, how it was made, and who is telling the story.

Gray, standing in a bar in TTDI on a Tuesday night earlier this month, was doing exactly that.

The room paid attention.

Lagg Distillery’s Kilmory and Corriecravie Editions are available through select whisky retailers and bars in Malaysia.

READ MORE: The Spirit Whisperer: How A Former Teacher Built Malaysia’s Most Personable Whisky Haven

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Smoke, Amber, And A Room That Paid Attention
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